A Chinland Defence Force spokesperson said his group does not do ‘banditry’.
Anti-junta resistance forces in Chin State on Thursday denied a claim by the military that they killed three police officers and stole over 38 million kyat from a bank in the northern town of Tedim.
A report in junta-controlled newspapers said members of the Chinland Defence Force (CDF) disguised themselves as customers to rob the state-owned Myanma Economic Bank after shooting the police guards dead at close range outside on Wednesday morning.
A CDF spokesperson said his organisation was not responsible for the robbery or the killings.
“It was not us,” he told Myanmar Now. “The military accused us of doing banditry. We neither are such an organisation nor do we do such things.”
No one has claimed responsibility for the killings.
A Tedim local who spoke to eyewitnesses told Myanmar Now he was skeptical of the military’s claim that there was a robbery after the shootings.
“Since it happened so quickly, I doubt the killers could have entered the bank at all,” he said.
After the incident, soldiers questioned people in the town and the streets were emptier than usual as a result, he said.
The bank’s operations were moved to the local police station and residents continued going about their business the next day, he added.
Amid deadly nationwide crackdowns against anti-coup protests since February, some residents of Chin State formed civilian administration groups while others took up arms in a bid to overthrow the junta.
CDF fighters familiar with the local terrain have since killed hundreds of junta soldiers and police officers in clashes across the state while suffering relatively few casualties themselves.
source myanmar-now